Abbé Jean MERMET MARECHAL (1745-1798)


Refractory priest, Martyr of the Revolution

Born on March 16, 1745 in Désertin (Jura) into a very Christian family.

He entered the major seminary in Lyon, where he was ordained priest in 1768 and became professor of dogmatic theology.

The Bishop of Saint Claude appointed him vicar at Arbent (Ain), a position he held until 1773.

He then joined his uncle, Pierre Mermet, parish priest of Saint-Férréol, in the diocese of Le Puy-en-Velay, as his curate, succeeding him on his death on November 6, 1774.

Entirely devoted to his parishioners, he refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and fled to Ferrara, Italy, where he joined over 300 exiled priests who were being housed at Cardinal Mattei's expense.

He returned to Saint-Férréol at the end of 1796 or beginning of 1797, but failed to declare his return to the authorities, thinking it unnecessary, which was to be the cause of his death.

Faced with renewed persecution, he was forced to remain in hiding until August 20, 1798, when he was discovered, brutally arrested and tried at Saint-Didier.

Imprisoned in Le Puy for 23 days, he was condemned to death on September 14, 1798, as a refractory priest, accused of demigration and shot on September 15, 1798 in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire.

Bibliography: Arsac (Abbé G.) Vie de labbé Jean Mermet, preface by Mgr Marpot, évêque de Saint-Claude, Le-Puy-en-Velay, 1894
Reprinted in Villard-Saint-Sauveur, Poligny, 1992
by André POUILLARD - Chanoine titulaire de Saint Claude
p.409-433

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